Abstract:

The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic has largely brought changes in the functioning of society at the global, local and micro-local levels in the fields of economy, politics, health and education. This paper focuses on the challenges that have arisen in the field of planning, implementation and evaluation of the teaching process. The pandemic shook the didactic foundations of a rather sluggish school system. A comparative analysis found that in most countries, distance education was the main response to the acute demand of the pandemic age.

Authors of this paper problematize challenges in the implementation of theories of distance learning in education which were primarily intended for the tertiary level and as key didactic requirements they point out independence and self-direction of students. The aim of this paper is to analyze and present the results of all available empirical research in the pandemic and post-pandemic period in Croatia, which have didactic challenges as the subject of study. The analysis is focused on three research areas with regard to the criteria of the subject of the educational process. First research question focuses on challenges from the student's perspective, the second on the parent's perspective, and the third on educators.

The results indicate that educators highlight the challenges related to the planning, implementation and evaluation of the teaching process, and parents of students at lower levels of education emphasize their new role of “substitute” teacher. Special attention is paid to collaborative teaching, students' peer relationships, space as a factor in online education and teaching communication.

In the concluding remarks, open questions are derived as dilemmas: whether the Internet galaxy is an ally or an enemy in the teaching process and whether we can learn something from the concept of homeschooling?

Keywords:

Distance learning, contact teaching, homeschooling.